"More mining frauds lurking under the surface"
By PAUL BAGNELL
Mining Reporter The Financial Post
Canada's lone mining-fraud cop says he's swamped with complaints -
including a few about projects that look distinctly like hoaxes - but
lacks the resources to investigate them fully.
RCMP Sgt. Randy Rogers said yesterday a lack of expert personnel and a
fragmented regulatory framework stand in the way of more effective pursuit
of the "dirty 2%" of mining entrepreneurs who aim to defraud investors.
Speaking in Toronto, at the annual conference of the Prospectors &
Developers Association of Canada, Rogers urged junior exploration
companies to guard against fraud by adopting stricter practices at their
projects.
He is the RCMP's only specialist in mining fraud, a position created in
September 1996. He works in the force's commercial crime unit in Vancouver
and spent eight years working as an exploration geologist.
Rogers said complaints arrive much faster than they can be investigated
by himself or other commercial crime officers. A few of the cases on his
plate are highly suspicious, suggesting mining investors may have more
crash-and-burn stories ahead of them yet.
He is helping RCMP investigators in Calgary probe the Bre-X Mineral Ltd.
scandal, but would not comment on the investigation.
However, he said: "Let's say there's a few others like that in the fire."
The Busang fraud has made investors and industry participants more
willing to report their suspicions to the RCMP.
"There's an onslaught of new information coming in that we just don't
have the bodies to investigate.
"I've got a stack of files that deep waiting to be investigated, but no
one to investigate them," Rogers said, waving his hand about half a metre
above the table.
"We need expertise - we need people with a mining background, with a
stock exchange background and a legal background."
Too often, he said, RCMP officers are transferred out of commercial crime
units after they have gained experience.
Rogers is one of those who would like to see a national securities
regulator.
With jurisdiction over securities lying with provincial governments,
investigations into mining frauds often get shunted from one province to
another. "I really support a national securities commission, personally. I
think it would eliminate a lot of inter-jurisdictional squabbling."
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